Obituary: George Haydn

George Haydn, founding partner of Haydn and Rollett Construction. Died aged 86.

George Haydn, born in Hungary to Jewish parents in 1919, arrived in New Zealand with his cousin Andrew in November 1939.

They wore overcoats, hats, gloves and scarves. Each had a suitcase, but their money had been stolen on board ship. They spoke not a word of English.

George had been studying economics at university in Hungary, but in New Zealand, George and Andrew took up anything they could - cabinetmaking, upholstery, labouring, dishwashing and French polishing. Eventually, George became a leading hand carpenter for Fletchers.

At first rejected for military service because he was an alien, George entered the Papakura Military Camp in January 1943. As he stood in a queue countering boredom with a book, the man next to him said, "I see you are reading about Gauguin". It was the poet A.R.D. Fairburn.

The two men began a lifelong friendship and in due course George would join Fairburn's circle - Denis Glover, Frank Sargeson, Ken Smithyman, Allen Curnow, Ron Mason and Bob Chapman among others - in their favourite Auckland pubs. In 1948, George organised Haydn and Rollett to build a new cottage for Sargeson in Takapuna.

In August 1945, George married sculptor Molly Macalister and they built a house in Takapuna, where George lived until the day he died. In 1946, George set up a construction firm with George Rollett. Haydn and Rollett became (and still is) a leading construction firm. George, an astute businessman, also ensured their workers regarded building as a craft, and the high quality of the firm's work can be seen in, for example, the conversion of the Princes St synagogue into a National Bank branch.

In Takapuna, the Haydns enjoyed a lively social life. George was passionate about architecture, literature, tennis, chess and especially art. In the recent book Fairburn and Friends, he wrote in his chapter about life among the North Shore literati. Besides Fairburn, Mason, Smithyman, Sargeson and Curnow, there were Keith and Mary Sinclair, Jean and Charlie Bartlett, Maurice and Barbara Duggan, Una Platts, Sydney and Marjorie Musgrove, Antony Alpers, and Sarah Campion.

George sold his interest in Haydn and Rollett when Molly became ill in 1979. She died later that year aged 59. George died on September 16, 2005. He is survived by partner Mary Sinclair, architect son John and wife, and three grandchildren.